As I’m going through my doctoral program I’m reading a slough of books, some of which are less than enjoyable. But others have treasures buried in them that are truly beneficial. I just finished reading an excellent book by Glenn Paauw called “Saving the Bible from Ourselves: Learning to Read and Live the Bible Well.” There were many good points, and I wrote a paper review of it which follows a form our instructor requires. I will share it here, and if you desire, you can skim through it and perhaps find something helpful.

Bibliographic Info

Paauw, G. (2016). Saving the Bible from Ourselves. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Author’s background

Glenn Paauw serves as the Executive Director of the Biblica Institute for Bible Reading (formerly International Bible Society). He is dedicated to recovering the natural literary form of the Bible and drawing people in to appreciate the grand narrative of Scripture. Previously, he was vice president of global Bible engagement at Biblica where he as worked for the past 26 years. He led the development of the revolutionary The Books of the Bible format. Formerly a high school Bible teacher and IVCF staffer, he has traveled widely, speaking in many conferences and churches. He graduated from Calvin College and Seminary. Glenn and his wife Jain have two sons, Justin and Colin, and live in Colorado Springs.

Big Idea

The primary thesis that Paauw puts forth in his book is that over the centuries, in an effort to make the Bible more readable, usable and understandable, we have created a fractured Bible that has its “literary, historical and dramatic contexts” removed (p.11). Rather than reading large sections of Scripture as they were originally intended, we read or search for brief snippets that give us answers to our problems while missing the bigger picture of the text. He promotes seven areas where we have headed the wrong direction in our handling of the Bible, each followed by suggestions for how to return to the original intent of the writers, and the Author who inspired the text. He says, “The Bible needs saving, not because of any defect in itself, but because we’ve buried it, boxed it in, wallpapered over it, neutered it, distorted it, isolated it, individualized it, minimized it, misread it, lied about it, debased it and oversold it. We have overcomplicated its form while oversimplifying its content.” (p.16)

 

Best Chapter

One of my favorite, most memorable chapters,  that I’ve mentioned to many people, was the combo of Ch.3-4, “the Snacking Bible” vs. “the Feasting Bible.” The inevitable result of the dissected modern Bible is that instead of people feasting on large units (ie books) of the Bible, they would snack on short verses, phrases, paragraphs and sections. “Immediacy of application is the demand.” (p.57) We believe that we “need the Bible to be a quick and easy access point for inspirational or doctrinal verses.” (p.61) Rather than reading the Bible in our small, contrived chunks, we should feast on “its own discrete literary units – not verses, not chapters, not topically-headed sections, but whole books.” (p.73) This theme is emphasized again and again, and is built upon throughout his book, as will be shown below.

 

Best Quotes

“The mistaken notion that the Bible is a look-it-up-and-find-the-answer handy guide to life.” (p.15)

“Our overindulged addiction to addition has given us everything we could ask for except the text itself in a clean, natural expression.” (p.33)

“To save the Bible from ourselves, we must begin to trust once again its ancient ways of saying things. … The saving of the Bible begins with a simple, clean and natural presentation of the test of the Bible.” (p.50)

“You can’t possibly know the gospel if you don’t know the story.” Can’t use Romans Road and John 3:16 to communicate the gospel without following Paul’s letter to the Romans and John’s Gospel.

“A double loss. Snacking on the Bible costs us dearly in both ways: we seek and find only what we already want, and we miss all that God was trying to communicate.” (p.68)

Although we want the Bible to speak directly to us, “at the center is the narrative of God’s people Israel as they lived in the ancient world.” (p.90)

Rather than salvation being thought of as “going to heaven when we die,” when Jesus teaches about the kingdom of heaven and salvation, it “is a hope for God’s will to invade the earth, and not for flying away to some other place.” (p.94) This is a point Paauw will expand significantly upon later in the book.

“The abandonment of story in the modernist attempt to make sense of the Bible is one of the biggest mistakes God’s people have made with the Scriptures in the entire history of the church.” “It is precisely the narrative character of the Bible that allows us to make an authentic connection between these ancient writings and our own lives.” (p.106)

“It’s appropriate to characterize the Bible overall as a temple and dwelling place story, a liberation and exodus story, a forgiveness and reconciliation story, and kingdom-rebellion-reclamation story, an account of the creation, distortion and restoration of God’s image in humanity, a narrative of overcoming chaos and bringing peace and order, and many more such descriptions.” “Something significant of God’s intention was lost and God has been working through the ages to recover it, with the decisive moment coming in the accomplishment of King Jesus.” The rest “is an outworking and implementation of what he has already done.” (p.116)

“The Bible is speaking the language we were made for: story.” (p.122)

“Israel’s story prior to the coming of the Messiah takes up about three-fourths of the Bible’s entire length. Any claim to a viable reading of the Bible must account for the role of Israel in the overall story.” (p.141) Yet in most cases our explanation of God, His will, and a relationship with Him through Christ does not even mention Israel.

“An otherworldly hope is not only not in the text, but the typical expression of this distorted hope is also sub-biblical in profound ways.” (p.144) “Here vs. there” is not nearly as biblical a way of viewing overcoming evil with good as is “now vs. then.”

“If we learn to read and live the Bible together in a deeper way, each of us will paradoxically find our own identity and true purpose as full members in Christ’s body.” (p.178)

“The implication so often is that there is one single truth to be found and our job is to determine it. But regularly experiencing the Bible in community will shatter this expectation. It is imperative that we embrace a multiperspective approach without slipping into pure subjectivity or a postmodern relativism. (p.182)

“Our Bibles should be formatted to help readers recognize literary forms.” … “We’ve settled for an information Bible.” (p.187)

“The modernistic bias is toward short, staccato propositional statements of truth.” (p.196)

 

Best Illustration

There are numerous fabulous illustrations throughout this text, for example the snacking vs. feasting Bible. But to choose one not yet mentioned, I would point to Paauw’s illustration from “The Gods Must Be Crazy.” Xi found an amazing gift that dropped from above into his part of the Kalahari desert. His tribe used it for many purposes, but eventually it was used harmfully and created divisions and destruction in the tribe. The gods must have been crazy to send it to them. Eventually, Xi had to dispose of the gift by throwing it off the end of the earth, and after a long journey, “he gently tossed the Coke bottle over the edge.” (p.76) Likewise we’ve received an incredible gift from God, but we use it in ways He never intended it to be used, and it has bred so many problems as denominations and groups and individuals fight with each other, all using the Bible to support their views. Receiving “little decontextualized pieces” of the Bible thinking they dropped from God just for me is missing the whole point of the Bible and is resulting in a “biblically underfed” Christianity. (p.84) Rather, we must receive the Bible in its historical context, for it was written to certain people at a certain time.

The other excellent and memorable illustration I will comment on, perhaps because I can picture myself in his “hiking boots,” was found on pp.155ff when Paauw recounted his hiking expedition up two major peaks in Colorado, slipping at one point and injuring his knee and being stranded with few good options. While looking around at what appeared to be a hopeless situation, with no way to pass through a dense patch of trees and bushes, suddenly a large buck stepped out from the thick foliage revealing a way of passage, and after a few seconds re-entered and was gone. But the pathway had been revealed and Paauw comments, “From that time forward I have never doubted that the world we live in is an enchanted place.” (p.156) The world of the Bible offers so much more than we can grasp with a superficial glance, and the mystery that is alive in it will be found as we follow the Master’s pathway.

 

Best Idea

On page 14, Paauw shares a litany of superlatives for how the Bible is unique. “The Bible is dynamic, special, inspired and inspiring – the crucial spiritual tool God himself has given us…” Paauw makes clear repeatedly how amazing the Bible is, but in our pragmatic, individualistic, Western consumerism we have emasculated the Bible of much of its power, beauty and efficacy.

One key theme which Paauw repeatedly returns to is the idea that we can’t take shortcuts to a deep understanding of the Bible. This is one of the themes we emphasize in the Pathways Bible training I offer pastors throughout Africa. In Paauw’s words, “Our urgent and well-meaning desire to find something that speaks immediately and directly to our own situation will derail the intention and meaning first placed there by the Bible’s authors.” (p.68) As we often say in our trainings, and Paauw says on p.69, “the Bible was written for us, but not directly to us.” This same idea is further developed on p.91 as Paauw explains the temptation to short-circuit the vital due diligence of appropriate study of the historical context of the original readers. As the historical Bible progresses, God’s intentions are slowly unveiled and we receive more revelation of his redemptive plan. (p.93)

 

Most Controversial Idea

There are many controversial, startling points that Paauw makes, all of which he gives strong support for. For example, he suggests that the “Bible’s newfound complexity (including paragraphs, columns, chapters, verses, section headings, notes, cross-references, etc.) is artificial, intrusive and ultimately misleading as to the true nature of what it is.” (p.33) In contrast, he proposes the “elegant Bible,” which is free of all these distractions and allows the simple text to be absorbed as it was intended. The form of the Bible matters immensely to the understanding of the Bible. Referencing by context and content is far healthier than referencing by chapter and verse. Looking at book by book of the Bible is where the meaning emerges, not in verses or chapters.

Another controversial point Paauw makes is contra the many evangelicals who eagerly seek release from this world to “a better place.” He writes, “escape from creation was never the plan. Confronting and defeating evil within creation was.” (p.133) Recreation is the climax of the Bible, not after-life. (p.149) “From start to finish, the story teaches us that salvation is fundamentally restoration.” (p.150)

 

Best Ahah Take-away

The centerpiece of Paauw’s thesis, the apex of his chiasm, is the recovery of the “Storiented Bible.” Returning to the narrative flow of the Bible is something I’ve been thinking a great deal about recently, since I am part of a team of Western pastors who are very linear, didactic and Western-educated. Narrative is unfamiliar to us, and so we naturally gravitate to the didactic sections of Scripture. Even the narrative parts we tend to analyze and treat in a linear fashion. The narrative story of Scripture that Paauw recounts in pp.111ff is a refreshing, challenging, revelatory way of looking at the overarching metanarrative of God’s message. The drama of Scripture set is major “acts” was an insightful way of looking at this metanarrative. (p.118) Although he did not draw this out, Paauw’s section on Christ at the center of the story (p.119ff) led me to reflect on the discovery that each member of the Trinity are at the center of different parts in the story. In the OT, the Father is the dominating member, in the Gospels the Son is pervasive, and from Acts and on the Holy Spirit is the primary member of the Trinity acting in the story. Yet all too often various segments of Christianity will emphasize one member to the exclusion of the others, resulting in poor theology and practice.

Closely tied with this is the community aspect to ingesting the Bible. “Ancient communication was overwhelmingly oriente to hearing, including the passing on of key oral traditions that were shaped over time. … Mostly, the word was heard, and it was heard together with other people. The two main speakers of the New Testament, Jesus and Paul, clearly favored a particular gathering place – the synagogue.” (p.171) This is something we have nearly completely lost in our individualistic Western culture.

 

Point the Book

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would give it a 9.5 rating. At times it was pretty slow reading, and the final section on the iconic Bible seemed to emphasize the material book more than what is found inside. But as my comments above suggest, I found a plethora of useful, instructive, eye-opening thoughts that challenged me to adjust my thinking and handling of the Bible and lead others on a similar path.